Patient artwork created in an asylum: The making of an accidental artist

A discussion of the art work of Fernandes provides insight into the topic of the art of the mentally ill. Fernandes was a small crop farmer who began to create art works while a patient for over three decades in the Lisbon Miguel Bombarda Psychiatric Hospital. He started drawing in his 60s. His magnificent drawings, figures uniting men and beasts created with ballpoint pen on paper make him a stellar representative of patient artwork. The drawings were first revealed four years after his death in a film by director António Reis. More recently Fernandes' drawings have been included in important international collections of Art Brut and outsider art.